Jockey Box Alternative?

[bigdawg86]

Hey guys! I will be taking a week long house boat trip soon and wanted to bring a corny keg or two, but I am somewhat stumped on how to make that work.

1.) Jockey Box will work, I thought... but I read that they aren't good for extended trips like mine due to the higher serving pressure will over carbonate when left attached for more than a day. I do not want to pressurize and purge excess all day to avoid over carbonation.

2.) Ice the keg, use picnic tap. This too will work, but this would likely require ALOT of ice as a bucket or trash can isn't insulated making for excessive melt off. Trips to the marina will likely be 20-30 minutes, kinda a downer.

Are there any other options? Can you store and serve a keg on it's side? Reason I ask is if I could do this I can just toss the keg in an ice chest on it's side...

I really want to take my home brew but it seems like I don't have many good options due to wanting the beer cold and ready to serve from start to finish of the trip, yet I have finite amount of ice storage as we need to keep all the other food and drinks cool too.

Thanks!

 

[owmatooth]

how about cutting a corny sized hole in the top of one of those yellow igloo water dispensers? I know i've seen it done on here before. then you can essentially have a well insulated garbage can with a picnic tap that will hold ice for a few days. They only run about $30 at walmart. top of corny might be out a few inches, but bottom 3/4's would be in ice water.

 

[NitrogenWidget]

I built one of these for a week at the lake.
someone here built one a while back so i borrowed their idea.
I used great stuff and insulation board, lined it with two contractor bags and filled it with ice.

Only issue was kegs started to float as they emptied so you will need to bail it.

 

[Korken91]

I don't know how it looks on the boat, but could it work to chain the keg and let the water cool it?

 

[owmatooth]

I don't know how it looks on the boat, but could it work to chain the keg and let the water cool it?

You could brew up an Anchor Porter and and Anchor Liberty IPA...

 

[Yooper]

Here's mine. We put a plastic ball valve on the bottom, so we could drain it as needed when the ice melted. It's lined with foam insulation and reflextive stuff, so it stays pretty cool.

But you could use a jockey box. You don't change the pressure to serve, etc, as long as you have enough line inside with the cold plate to avoid those issues.

 

[NitrogenWidget]

Here's mine. We put a plastic ball valve on the bottom, so we could drain it as needed when the ice melted. It's lined with foam insulation and reflextive stuff, so it stays pretty cool.

But you could use a jockey box. You don't change the pressure to serve, etc, as long as you have enough line inside with the cold plate to avoid those issues.

Just how big are the kegs in there?
I had to manhandle the corny and quarter keg to get both in mine.
two corny's fit fine though.

 

[Yooper]

Just how big are the kegs in there?
I had to manhandle the corny and quarter keg to get both in mine.
two corny's fit fine though.

I have three 5 gallon cornies and a 5 pound c02 tank in there.

 

[applescrap]

Here's mine. We put a plastic ball valve on the bottom, so we could drain it as needed when the ice melted. It's lined with foam insulation and reflextive stuff, so it stays pretty cool.

But you could use a jockey box. You don't change the pressure to serve, etc, as long as you have enough line inside with the cold plate to avoid those issues.

Thats really cool.

 

[2eyejack]

how about cutting a corny sized hole in the top of one of those yellow igloo water dispensers? I know i've seen it done on here before. then you can essentially have a well insulated garbage can with a picnic tap that will hold ice for a few days. They only run about $30 at walmart. top of corny might be out a few inches, but bottom 3/4's would be in ice water.

This is what I did for my portable, on-the-go corny setup, probably after seeing someone else's idea on HBT. Started with a 10 gal round cooler and cut a hole through the lid using a roto cutter; I wasn’t worried about a perfect cut because I planned to cover the edges. The lid is hollow so you end up cutting two thin surfaces. I sized the hole to fit a 10” duct starting collar (with tabs, example http://tinyurl.com/yadtvond) that surrounds the portion of the keg that sticks through the lid. The tabs fold over into the opening to hold the collar tight to the lid. I eventually loosely filled the hollow cooler lid with low expansion spray foam for better insulation, and used foam pipe insulation to line the edge and form a tight seal around the keg. The last thing I bought was an end cap (outside fit) to cover the galvanized collar when transporting the keg. The duct collar and end cap both have 2 layers of reflectix inside for insulation. The entire process took an hour or less once I figured out what I wanted to do.

There is plenty of room for ice surrounding the keg, melt water is drained with the spigot, and a bungee cord keeps the lid tight for riding in the back of my truck and to keep insulated when not serving. A cold keg and a pre-cooled cooler keeps ice for quite a while, and not much is needed to top-off as it melts down. My first CO2 source was a mini regulator and cartridges but I’ve since moved to a paintball tank. I also started with a faucet on an adapter, but that produced too much foam so now I use a picnic tap with a few feet of hose.

It’s been working for me for a couple of years now. Not as many kegs or as fancy as some other solutions, but my friends are always happy to see the hybrid cooler show up and two people can easily carry it to some out of the way places.

 

[owmatooth]

Bingo! that's the pictures I was talking about. Definately building one of these for tailgate season this year. Thanks for the post @2eyejack

 

[LRS_Brewer]

This is what I did for my portable, on-the-go corny setup, probably after seeing someone else's idea on HBT. Started with a 10 gal round cooler and cut a hole through the lid using a roto cutter; I wasn’t worried about a perfect cut because I planned to cover the edges. The lid is hollow so you end up cutting two thin surfaces. I sized the hole to fit a 10” duct starting collar (with tabs, example http://tinyurl.com/yadtvond) that surrounds the portion of the keg that sticks through the lid. The tabs fold over into the opening to hold the collar tight to the lid. I eventually loosely filled the hollow cooler lid with low expansion spray foam for better insulation, and used foam pipe insulation to line the edge and form a tight seal around the keg. The last thing I bought was an end cap (outside fit) to cover the galvanized collar when transporting the keg. The duct collar and end cap both have 2 layers of reflectix inside for insulation. The entire process took an hour or less once I figured out what I wanted to do.

There is plenty of room for ice surrounding the keg, melt water is drained with the spigot, and a bungee cord keeps the lid tight for riding in the back of my truck and to keep insulated when not serving. A cold keg and a pre-cooled cooler keeps ice for quite a while, and not much is needed to top-off as it melts down. My first CO2 source was a mini regulator and cartridges but I’ve since moved to a paintball tank. I also started with a faucet on an adapter, but that produced too much foam so now I use a picnic tap with a few feet of hose.

It’s been working for me for a couple of years now. Not as many kegs or as fancy as some other solutions, but my friends are always happy to see the hybrid cooler show up and two people can easily carry it to some out of the way places.

How do I save this link on the mobile HBT app? I will definitely be building this, and do not want to lose it to the 1000s of other posts on here.

 

[jcav]

Might as well add mine.

 

[jcav]

Oh and here is the link to build one if you want.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/portable-5-gallon-keg-cooler.637650/

 

[ctb1976]

That thing is awesome! If you don't mind me asking, about how much $ do you have in materials?

 

[jcav]

That thing is awesome! If you don't mind me asking, about how much $ do you have in materials?

Sure, the coolers were $88.00 ($44.00 each at Home Depot). All the other hardware, shanks, faucet, adapters, keg posts, beer line tubing, etc. cost another $120.00, so $208.00 total. I really like it. Totally portable, beer is nice and cold and no foaming issues once you set the correct pressure on the C02 tank, as the beer line is at the same temp as the beer in the keg so no warm spots in the beer line or at the faucet.

John

 

[ctb1976]

Thanks!